Sociological studies have repeatedly confirmed what many of us already suspected—namely, that among the mainline Protestant denominations, church membership has been in a steady, and somewhat staggering, decline. Sadly, Presbyterianism is no exception to this trend. In fact, other than 1983 (when the southern and northern streams of our denomination reunited), we haven’t had a net gain of members for close to four decades.

The big question, of course, is “Where are they all going?” And the answer, as it turns out, is that they are not going anywhere. They are simply not coming to church anymore. In effect, we have failed to pass on a religious heritage to our own children. They may have been baptized in the church, and attended years of Sunday School and youth activities, but rather than leading to faithful discipleship, it has resulted in an almost effortless departure.

The reasons for this exodus are many and varied. However, I would like to suggest that, somewhere near the top of the list, we put the fact that the church has seemingly lost touch with the very beliefs and practices that should make us distinct. In other words, we are no longer offering people an alternative way of looking at the world, and thus we lack both the voice and identity necessary for people to differentiate our particular way of life from that of the larger society.

Over a generation ago, H. Richard Niebuhr wrote a book entitled Christ and Culture, in which he raised the intriguing question of how the church should understand its relationship with the surrounding culture. Is the church pitted in a constant struggle with a hostile culture? Should it strive to feel at home in a friendly culture? Is it serenely transcendent over the culture? Or is it the work of the church to transform the culture?

There is little doubt as to where Niebuhr himself came out on this question. The culture is neither an evil to be avoided nor a patron to be embraced. The church does not reside in an ivory tower above society or in a distant realm totally divorced from it. As “the salt of the earth, and light of the world,” the church is to witness in such a way that the culture itself is transformed and brought into closer coherence with God’s will for humankind.

And yet, today, while many would claim that a transformation has, indeed, occurred—it has worked in exactly the opposite direction. It is the church that has been transformed by the culture. And when the Christian community no longer has anything to say which is different than the culture, and no ways of living in it that are distinct or even noteworthy, it should hardly surprise us when folks abandon worship on Sunday morning and start heading for the malls. The malls, at least, have a clear idea of what they are offering people!